Beers you once loved

Moosehead. Very popular in New Hampshire in the late 70s. So skunky.

 

Uhhh... Hoegaarden is good. Not saying you have to still like it, but it's a great representation of the style.

 

Samuel Adams anything...

 

Agreed, Its a good beer, I just dont give it any attention relative to how i used to.

 

Newcastle Brown Ale. Was my go to for a lot of years. Now it just tastes like musty sugar water to me.

 

Well, you're right about how limited the options were for flavorful US beers back then. But all I was saying was that those two particular beers used to be among my favorites, but today I don't find them very special. My point was that I think those beers that have undergone a change in flavor, not the fact that I have so many other options now. I still have lots of British beers that are among my favorites, just not those two any more.

 

That's because the head brewer of Magic Hat quit and started his own brewery - Fiddlehead. Great move! Fiddlehead makes great IPAs.

 

I used to love Newcastle too. I think the beer changed when Heineken started brewing it.

 

As bad as I hate to say it, I used to drink a ton of Miller lite. But back then I was in college, our alcohol laws were not the same as they are today and it was cheap and tasted better than most of the other offerings.

 

Samuel Smith Oatmeal Stout, as well as all other iterations of Sammy Smith, were my gateway drugs to good craft beer after NC '95 popped the cap.

Since then American brewing has come a long way, and with it an end to early favorites. I have also now experienced traditional lambics, which tend to be leaps and bounds beyond other styles in complexity, nuance, and refreshment. What once was complex is typically now simple, though I will always hold a fond, sentimental place in my heart for the early introducers that led me on my path to beervana. Perhaps it is from this sentimentality that (BA) stouts remain my favorite style, though I believe it is more from their grandiosity and robustness when done world-class.

 

Newcastle

 

While 90 Minute is still good (it got me into craft) it's not the same (figuratively).

 

Goose Island Honkers Ale was my gateway craft beer - still like their beers, but I don't drink them all that often anymore

 

Sierra Nevada Porter

 

If I had to throw another one out there, I'd say Goose Island's Oatmeal Stout - but for a completely different reason. I have some good memories splitting 6ers of that beer with fraternity brothers back in my college days. Was sad to see it retired, as it was one of a handful of stouts that shaped my early forays into craft beer.

 

I used to look forward to Oberon every year.. couldn't tell you the last time I had one at this point

 

Sixpoint Resin. This was my first dipa that I ever got. I loved it, despite the huge bitterness, so I knew I was gonna like hoppy beers from the get go. Fast forward to a year and half of drinking craft and it just wasn't the same. Way too much pine for my liking. I attribute to change in palate though and not the quality of the beer, as it still tastes good, just not great. Makes me worry about which beer I might grow out of next...

 

Well, if I go waaaay back it would have to be Genesee Cream Ale. I drank a lot of that as a young man. The drinking age was 18 then, it was very inexpensive where I lived and it tasted great to me. Tried it again several years ago and wondered what I ever saw in it. To something a little more current, I guess that would be DFH 90. I used to get at least a six pack a month a few years back. I haven't brought any home in about 2 years. I did have a pint on tap a few months back. I liked it but not as much as I used to.

 

Many moons ago, I used to LOVE Budweiser. Then I LOVED Heineken. Then I finally fell in LOVE with Sam Adams, before I fell for Craft...

 

Most of the non BMC stuff from the mid 90's...Boston lager, Guinness, Mississippi mud, liney, hiney, Newcastle. All those were great up to the point where I started drinking much better beers.